Mexican-American studies needed in Texas

Board of Education can do right thing and add class option

Updated 6:27 pm, Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Tony Diaz, leader of Librotraficante movement at a protest against Texas BS 1128 in El Alamo, San Antonio.

Tony Diaz, leader of Librotraficante movement at a protest against Texas BS 1128 in El Alamo, San Antonio.

Photo: Zeke Perez

Mexican-American studies needed in Texas

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On Friday, the Texas State Board of Education can vote to implement Mexican-American studies as a legitimate course option for every school district in Texas. Or the board can continue to deny and ignore the role Tejanos have played in forming this state and this nation.

Now is the time to acknowledge our history and culture. There are 4.9 million students in Texas; 51 percent are Hispanic.

And if you are reading this wondering what the difference is between a Tejano, a Hispanic, a Mexican-American, a Chicano or Chicana, or a Latino or Latina, that is one more reason that we need Mexican-American studies available to all of us. We have never had an official Mexican-American studies course in Texas public schools. What terrible things happen when our students and educators are not exposed to this history?

1 A principal at Hempstead Middle School in December made a public announcement banning the speaking of Spanish in the classroom.

The principal would have benefitted from Mexican-American studies to understand and appreciate that our elders suffered under similar ignorance; they were punished for speaking Spanish at school. In Hempstead, it took a young, straight-A student and her mom to stand up to that. The principal is currently on administrative leave.

1 In November, the Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of Texas at Austin organized the "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" game. One minor irony was that the group's chairman, Lorenzo Garcia, was Latino. A larger irony was that this racist game was scheduled to take place on Nov. 20, the anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution. The ultimate irony was that the group not only did not know that, but Garcia, in a media interview, also wrongly attributed to America's founding fathers the quote famously uttered by Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata: "I would rather die standing, than live on my knees."

Am I vocal because I studied Mexican-American history? No, I'm vocal because I'm mad. And what is different from when my parents or grandparents were oppressed is that I - and my brother and sisters - know our rights and we will stand up for our rights. And we will win.

And if the Texas State Board of Education won't implement Mexican-American studies courses based on common sense, here is a hard truth for them to ponder as we petition them with phone calls, letters and emails: Although the term Latino is not officially defined, the great Texas civil rights lawyer Gus Garcia in 1954 fought a legal battle that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, ultimately codifying Mexican-Americans as a class protected under the Constitution's 14th Amendment. Is that what we need to resort to? Suing Texas to demand culturally relevant and historically complete courses?

With our numbers and with our talent, we have history on our side. We will not be denied our destiny.

Will we become Arizona, where Democrats and Republicans cannot work together? It would take a vote of eight (out of a 15-member board) to approve Mexican-American studies courses, which means support will require some members to cross ideological lines that the board famously has drawn.

Ruben Cortez, representing South Texas and one of five Democrats on the board, placed Mexican-American studies on the "wish list" of 22 new courses to be developed and used in Texas public school curricula. Houston board of education member Donna Bahorich, a Republican, is conservative, but in a conversation with me said she could not see Mexican-American studies as a bad option. However, she has not gone so far as to indicate Mexican-American studies as one of the courses she would like to see implemented this session. She should.

Barbara Cargill, a Republican from The Woodlands and a darling of the tea party, is a board veteran and was among the voting bloc that a few years ago made national headlines for attempting to diminish the historical roles of such figures as Martin Luther King Jr., and civil rights leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. She won't go as far as to explicitly express interest in banning Mexican-American studies; however, her e-mail correspondence with me has been riddled with word games that would deny us our history and culture.

When I was in second grade, I was already translating English into Spanish for my parents. Word games don't work on me. Let's cut to the chase.

On Friday, the State Board of Education can vote to implement Mexican-American studies for our public schools and ensure that Texas is the leader in preparing students to thrive in a multicultural, multimedia era. Or, the board can choose to ignore our history and culture and take Texas back to my grandfather's day.

I am very proud to know that history will show we did not let that happen.

Diaz, director of Intercultural Studies at Lone Star College-North Houston, is founder of Los Librotraficantes ("The Book Smugglers"), a group that advocates keeping Latino literary works in schools and on library shelves.